Brifiiu. 



JAMF s I. 

 Parliament 



dissolved. 



A new par. 



liament 



conrofcca. 



Jsmes re 



vi-iits 



S-rntJajjd, 



A. n. 



His hostili 

 ty to pns 

 bytery. 



puritnr,g-. The dispute terminated in the dissolution 

 of the parliament, after James had told them " not 

 to meddle with the main points of government, that 

 was his craft; nor to pretend to instruct a king, who 

 had been thirty years at the trade in Scotland, be- 

 sides an apprenticeship of seven years in England." 



In 161. '!, James found it necessary, for the sake of 

 relieving his wants, to convoke another parliament. 

 His affections had already been fixed upon a worth- 

 less favourite, Robert Carre, whom he had raised 

 through several gradations of dignity to be Earl of 

 Somerset. The sums which he spent on this minion, 

 and the countenance which he shewed to him after the 

 horrible tragedy of Sir Thomas Overbury's murder, * 

 degraded the monarch in the eyes of his people, and 

 aggravated the distresses of his Exchequer. His 

 second parliament was still more refractory than the 

 first. At their first meeting, the king proposed a 

 supply to be granted, and then to proceed to redress 

 of grievances ; but the commons reversed the busi- 

 ness, and began with redress of grievances. The 

 king in wrath dismissed them, and imprisoned some 

 of the members, who had chiefly distinguished them- 

 selves in resisting the supply a proceeding which, 

 as Lord Coke remarks, was the greatest violence 

 ever done by an English monarch to the constitu- 

 tion. 



James revisited his native kingdom in 1616, re- 

 ceived the homage of her poets in a dead language, 

 and made speeches full of puns to the members of 

 .her universities. Before his accession to the throne 

 of England, he had indirectly, but unsuccessfully, 

 attempted the restoration of the hierarchy in the 

 church of Scotland. But although the Scottish bi- 

 shops had been permitted to retain their temporal 

 dignities, and a proportion of their revenue, the 

 spoils of the ancient church were engrossed by the 

 nobles, and those titular bishops could not resist the 

 authority of the national presbytery. To this church 

 James was a determined, though for some time an 

 hypocritical enemy. He began his attack upon it 

 by discontinuing the General Assembly, and banish- 

 ed those clergymen who had the spirit to remon- 

 strate. By the royal influence, a decree of the Scot- 

 tish parliament was obtained, which restored thir- 

 teen bishoprics; and, by an illegal meeting held 

 among the subservient part of the Scottish clergy, 

 the bishops were appointed perpetual moderators 

 within their own presbyteries. To complete the de- 

 gradation of the people, a High Commission was 

 put in the hands of the prelates, by which they en- 

 joyed inquisitorial powers of cuing and punishing at 

 discretion, laymen as well as clergy, for religious 

 opinion?. The Tengeance of the Scots due to James 

 for thus trampling on their religious rights, fell not 

 upon him but his successor. It seems as if the pub- 

 lic hatred, excited by these proceedings, had been 

 smothered during the king's visit by the more 

 loyal feeling of joy at the sight of their ancient mo- 

 narch. 



After his departure, an attempt was made to en- 

 force the observation of a ritual in worship similar to 



BRITAIN. 



the English. The people were admonished, by pro- 

 clamation, to observe the festivals, and the clergy to 

 practise the formalities prescribed to the church. 

 But the Scots persisted, at Christmas, in their usual 

 occupation. In the churches, they left the sacramen- 

 tal tables when required to kneel, and went in crouds 

 to other places, where the orthodox form of sitting 

 was preserved. A people, as a spirited historian * 

 observes, who prayed to God standing, were not 

 likely to kneel to sacramental symbols. 



The execution of Sir Walter Raleigh is one of the 

 most unjustifiable acts of James's reign. It is pro- 

 bable, as Hume has asserted, that Raleigh was cul- 

 pable in making the factitious gold mine in New 

 Spain a cloak for his real intentions of plundering the 

 Spanish settlements ; but, if that fact admitted of so 

 easy a proof as Mr Hume supposes, Raleigh ought 

 to have been punished on that ace. Hint, and on no 

 other. An English jury, it is said, would not have 

 brought him in guilty. If so, the sacrifice of the 

 bravest living commander was a detestable action, 

 even though done for the sake of prolonging peace 

 with Spain. 



But James's pacific views with regard to Spain 

 had not entirely the merit of public advantage, they 

 were mixed with private and selfish considerations. 

 He meditated a marriage between Prince Charles and 

 the second daughter of Spain, with whom he expect- 

 ed a very large dowry. When Frederic, the Elector 

 Palatine, who had married the daughter of James, ac- 

 cepted of the crown of Bohemia, the weak father-in- 

 law would neither break with Spain, nor had he 

 prudence to resist, in a proper manner, the voice of 

 his people, who called upon him to plunge into war 

 in defence of the oppressed Bohemians, and of the 

 Protestant cause. A new parliament being summon- 

 ed, the commons voted considerable supplies, on be- 

 ing informed that the king had remitted some money 

 to his son-in-law the elector ; and proceeding in the 

 most temperate manner to the examination of grie- 

 vances, they represented several, which were redress- 

 ed with alacrity. But the delicate buMness . f re- 

 search into abuses, f necessarily produced a difl\ rence 

 of pretensions on the yet unsettled boundaries, of the 

 constitution. He dismissed the parliament after a 

 short session, and parted with them on worse terms 

 than he had met them ; forfeiting the little popularity 

 he had gained, from some limitations of his preroga- 

 tive, by imprisoning Sir Edward Sandys for his op. 

 position in the late session. 



Before the next meeting of parliament, the Upper 

 Palatinate had been subdutd by the emperor's ge- 

 nerals, Frederic was a fugitive in distress, and dl 

 Germany was filled with the cruelties inflicted on the 

 Protestants. Roused by these circumstances the 

 commons exhorted James to abandon the intended 

 match with Spain, and take arms for his son in-law 

 and the Protestant cause. However impolitic it 

 might have justly seemed to embark in a religious 

 war, yet a respectful and reasonable answer wa cer- 

 tainly due to the serious appeal of the people in such 

 circumstances. But instead of reasoning with h 



Brit; 



Execiil 



of Sir ' 

 tt-r R a . 

 le.gh, 





.-\ new 



pa liar 



bUIllIlK 



16*1. 



* Though Somerset retired from Court, James bestowed a pension on him. 

 It was by this parliament that the great Bacon was impeached for corruption. 



t Lain" 



2- 



